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Fri 23 Jan 2015 | 08:33
Yoann Huget gets official warning for faking injury against Bath

37
Comments

With Oscar season just around the corner, Yoann Huget has made his best effort to scoop the coveted statuette with a best actor in a leading role performance that simply cannot be beaten. Sense has since prevailed, as he received an official warning.

Toulouse wing Huget's big role took place in their heavy defeat at the hands of Bath on Sunday.

The French winger took a tumble after making the slightest contact with what looked like his shoulder. He rolled around on the floor as if he'd been hit by a sniper, which the BT Sport commentators took exception to, Ben Kay in particular.

"That is pathetic. Personally I think that the powers that be, the disciplinary committee, should look at that and they should act on it because we do not want to see players taking dives. Just a little push in the chest and he grabs his face.. That is pathetic," said Kay.

European Professional Club Rugby agreed with the general media and fan sentiment. They issued a formal warning to Huget this week. EPCR said that the warning followed an "act contrary to good sportsmanship in that he (Huget) deliberately feigned an injury in contravention of Law 10.4(m)."

Players who accumulate three citing warnings or three yellow card offfences for foul play - or a combination of both - during the Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup competitions will be required to attend a disciplinary hearing.

Last year we saw the likes of Bryan Habana, Richard Hibbard and a few others feigning injury or appealing for foul play, when clearly it wasn't the case. This official warning sets a good precedent, and will hopefully remind all rugby players that acting should be saved for the movies.

View more acts of simulation, or faking injury, in the Related Posts below this

Posted By: Grant Constable

37 Comments

  • drg
    11:08 AM 29/01/2015

    Dan that is far too extreme, you were supposed to tell her that if she did it two or three more times this year then she would be invited to attend a hearing where evidence would be presented in order to make a decision on whether or not to punish her.

    You also needed to tell her that she would be allowed to present her own case and that many things such as her appearance on the day of the hearing, her actions on the day of the incidents, her remorsefulness at and around the time of the incident AND on the day of the hearing, as well as her previous record, would all be taken into account.

    THEN if she is found guilty you could select a toy, but as per the above, taking into her previous record and remorsefulness you may indeed decide to reduce the sentence to; perhaps, a minute on the naughty step....

  • stroudos
    11:05 AM 29/01/2015

    Ha, yeah, the apology pro-forma. They should print a load off ready for Delon Armitage and Dylan Hartley - is it something about that name and its variants?? Come to think of it, I remember at my school Dillon was a standard playground insult, loosely based on the word dildo, as in "you dillon, I can't believe you missed that!" - but I digress...

    Here's a version of the heartfelt message pro-forma that you can use in your own relationships too:
    http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2014/08/11/heartfelt-appreciation-letter/

  • guy
    8:06 PM 28/01/2015

    +1 for the 'sack of garlic' part

  • reality
    6:47 PM 28/01/2015

    It was in relation to your copy and paste point.

    "I, (insert player's name), am very (insert emotion) to have committed (insert action) which is in (keeping/contrast) with the values of rugby. I will endeavour to make sure it (happens/doesn't happen) again".

  • danknapp
    1:08 PM 28/01/2015

    I have a five year old son and a three year old daughter. I punished my daughter more than this for lying about her brother punching her. She got a minute on the naughty step, rather than told that if she did it again two or three more times this year then I'd take away one or two of her toys, that she wasn't that concerned about anyway.

  • stroudos
    7:43 AM 28/01/2015

    You could re-post...... ;)

  • drg
    8:51 PM 27/01/2015

    I don't fancy arguing minor details about this incident as we both agree Hugets act is disgraceful - but honestly at around the 1:45 mark, when the Bath player brings his hand round in an arching action to grab Huget, I would definitely suggest he makes contact with Hugets 'head'.

    I don't believe there was any contact with the face in terms of nose/eyes area (as Hugets actions suggest by grasping his face) but it seemed to me there was definitely a hand which caught his jaw sort of area...

    Either way, as I said, I don't wish to end up in an argument about who is worse Huget or Azam, they're both equally appalling...

    ...also *adjusts conspiracy inducing hat*, they're both French :D

  • reality
    8:51 PM 27/01/2015

    Noooo! Half of the content of my comment got removed for some reason and now it makes no sense. And it was hilarious too - I swear!

  • reality
    8:49 PM 27/01/2015

    "I,

  • stroudos
    1:31 PM 27/01/2015

    No, pretty much as Lord Kay described it:
    "Just a little push in the chest and he grabs his face."

  • drg
    12:37 PM 27/01/2015

    The thing is though, from what I recall (being too lazy to hit the play button) there was contact with Hugets face.. So he didn't necessarily fake being punched, he just exaggerated what happened to his face - which was a hand touching it...

    So I sort of see the same thing happening in both videos....

    Plus Huget is a wing and French, which makes it less preposterous that he fell to the ground like a sack of garlic...

  • 12:36 PM 27/01/2015

    what a terrible advert for the game

  • flanker2712
    12:21 PM 27/01/2015

    Excellent point about the replays.

  • stroudos
    8:50 AM 27/01/2015

    Very well put Reality. The difference is exaggeration versus outright fakery.

    To illustrate with two examples from wendyball:

    Azam = Rooney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxl799Q2t4

    Huget = Rivaldo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiW0IPrv1Ro

  • stroudos
    8:26 AM 27/01/2015

    Indeed. Partly because you know that he's just copied and pasted what the club's PR manager has emailed him and told him to post anyway. But, yeah, it's a start.

  • heavyhooker
    12:50 AM 27/01/2015

    I too would like to have seen WR make an example of him. The tweet is a start but getting up in front of the press is the real way to do it. I find twitter apologies cowardly.

  • marty
    11:44 PM 26/01/2015

    Well I guess he was looking to put Watson in touch, but just like his season so far with Toulouse, the modus operandi and the results are...terrible

  • reality
    8:23 PM 26/01/2015

    Yeah, I didn't really know how to say it, but Huget's is far worse. Azam exaggerated what happened, but he didn't just pretend that something had happened when in reality nothing had happened. There was a headbutt, after all, even if weak and clumsy.

    Huget got pushed and then pretended he had been punched. Inventing an act of foul play to get someone else punished is far worse than exaggerating an act of foul play.

  • drg
    6:37 PM 26/01/2015

    Really?

  • colombes
    6:05 PM 26/01/2015

    2 others nasty things spotted:
    - Flood decapitation attempt was his only highlight through an atrocious performance
    - Agulla slowing medard run and generally looking for shit during the whole game

  • colombes
    6:01 PM 26/01/2015

    Dear Yoann, would u mind just concentrate yourself on running, slaloming, kick&chasing and scoring? Because your acting really sucks.

    Sincerely,
    rugby fans

  • stroudos
    2:24 PM 26/01/2015

    Disgraceful tackle by Flood, I just can't understand what he was thinking.

  • stroudos
    2:09 PM 26/01/2015

    What about that "tackle" by Flood though!?!? Has there not been a citing for that? About as pointless and unnecessary as it was reckless and dangerous. I mean Watson's on the ground a couple of inches from touch and 10m from his own try line.

    I simply cannot fathom what was going through Flood's mind when he though there was any need to even make the "tackle". Also, what the **** was he protesting to the touch judge about??

    I haven't seen a neck twisted so sharply and violently since that Chong Li in the film Bloodsport (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ZLkDFFPWQ for the young/uninitiated).

    Never mind banning people for several months if the bloke they tackle "goes beyond the horizontal" while being safely lowered to the ground. Surely this sort of "tackle" is far more likely to damage necks and brains.

    Clancy obviously saw it (and on the big screen in slow motion too), because he penalised it. But why not even a yellow card??

  • connachtman
    2:08 PM 26/01/2015

    Fine him a month's wages and a 4 game suspension. I loate soccerball and rugby needs to sort out this sort of knacker behaviour.

  • stroudos
    1:32 PM 26/01/2015

    To quote the great Martin Castrogiovanni, "I do not like c**ts". And here is the living embodiment of the worst kind of cheating c**t. Huget is now the very epitome of all that is despicable, contemptible and wretched in the world.

    #JeNeSuisPasHuget

    To have the audacity to pull this kind of stunt just a few feet away from Watson who had genuinely almost had his head removed is just unbelievable.

    Like many others I'd like to have seen a massive ban for this, rather than the gentle rap on the knuckles that was administered. An example has to be set before rugby gets on a slippery slope. I'm old enough to remember when you could tackle someone fairly and squarely in football and not have to worry about the prick deliberately falling over. Watching that game now it's like a different sport. Hard to imagine rugby going that far down the road, but if it's not nipped in the bud quickly, it could happen.

  • stroudos
    1:15 PM 26/01/2015

    DrG, this act by Huget is a hundred times worse.

  • danknapp
    9:29 AM 26/01/2015

    Publicly humiliated by not being looked at? Oh, the shame!

  • danknapp
    9:28 AM 26/01/2015

    To be fair, French wingers are the only people who are allowed to wear white rugby boots. They tend to be fast and good-looking. *shakes himself* Wait, did I just say that out loud?

  • heavyhooker
    10:23 PM 25/01/2015

    Just out of curiosity, has this prime example of slug bait even issued any sort of apology or show of regret for bringing such disservice to the game and his team?
    How about a message from the coach and manager that they see this a not part of rugby and that they are not condoning it or teaching their players to do it?

  • finedisregard
    3:34 PM 24/01/2015

    A French winger wearing white rugby boots.

  • finedisregard
    3:38 AM 24/01/2015

    1)Jesus Christ, what a coward 2)This is the natural outcome of introducing regular crazy long multi-game bans and yellow and red cards into the game. Players will try to get others ejected from the game. There should be no such thing as cards in rugby.

  • marty
    11:58 PM 23/01/2015

    Wow, a yellow for Toby Flood as well, no? I mean he pulled Watson's head out of its base. On Huget's behavior, is it me or do we start to see those moves more and more these days?

  • 10stonenumber10
    9:47 PM 23/01/2015

    On behalf of the entire rugby community....


    SHAME ON YOU.


    (thank you Al Murray, beautiful british game... ruined by a representative of your favourite nation)

  • shakespeare
    5:46 PM 23/01/2015

    I think this might have called for a yellow to both Huget and Flood.

  • drg
    5:06 PM 23/01/2015

    I think whatever punishment would be placed on the ''offender' i.e. the person who supposedly struck the opponent, should be placed on the 'victim'; in this case Huget.

    So in this incident, one would assume the facepush etc (if it was genuine) would result in a yellow card... in my opinion, that should mean that Huget receives the yellow.

    In the Tom James headbutt example posted above, where the so called offender Tom James receives a red card, I would reverse that and place the red card on the diving player.

    Of course this is a very over blown punishment for the actual actions (diving to the ground) however, the players in both cases deliberately attempted (and in Tom James' case, succeeded!) in getting the other players into hot water and through 'false acts'... Don't get me wrong, if someone pokes your eyes go insane, but in these situations I think the ethos needs to be protected.

  • drg
    4:30 PM 23/01/2015

    To be fair, nothing was worse or as blatant as this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rJrZdhtJQ4

    ...I never get bored of sharing,...

  • reality
    4:03 PM 23/01/2015

    The way this has been managed is ridiculous. This is undoubtedly the worst and most blatant instance of diving I've ever seen (maybe even soccer included), a great opportunity to send out the message that it's unacceptable and will be punished, and what do they do? They give him a warning, and tell him that if he does it twice more in this year's ERC then he'll have to go to a disciplinary hearing.

    They could be out of the competition in a week, and even the worst offender of them all, Bryan Habana, has never done it three times over the course of 6-9 matches. So that translates to absolutely no punishment and an invitation to everyone else to start diving with impunity. Ridiculous!

    And Huget - what an absolute knob! I used to think he was all right. Now I realise he's just a cheating prick.

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